United Nations Y2K Warning About Agriculture

ROME, April 19 (Reuters) - Farmers, who have fought for years to protect their crops against killer diseases and ravaging insects, now face a threat from a new pest -- the millennium computer bug.

The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) warned on Monday the millennium bug might harm global agricultural production and food supplies.

"The millennium bug could prove one of the most dangerous pests threatening farmers, along with the locusts and brown planthoppers they have battled with throughout the centuries," FAO said in a statement.

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"In one way or another, year 2000 computer problems threaten almost all of the supplies and services essential for agricultural production," FAO said.

The organisation said the entire agricultural process was vulnerable to the problem, from seed supplies for remote farmers to high-tech computerised distribution networks.